Here is the loaded version of the Steamer Bellota:
And a few more pictures:
and next to the empty one:
And again for size comparison with the Warlord tanker:
Next will be the tanker and passenger liner versions.
As I said in the last post I wanted to make moulds of the steamer Bellota. Here they are:
Here are the first casts of the parts:
And the build steamer. The life boats and davids are still missing as are the air vents. I have to do two part molds for these. Will be done next week. Furthermore the masts are missing these will be done with brass rod.
Here is a picture of the cast steamer:
Some more pictures from different angles:
And pictures with the Warlord tanker alongside for size comparison:
The model as shown above is supposed to show the ship in ballast so riding very high in the water. I have done a loaded version ,too, have still to put it together, will show later.
Now I will do the tanker and liner version next!
I finished the parts of the steamer Bellota in the last days and did the molds yesterday. Here are the components of the ship:
These parts are cast separately to be able to use the hull for different layouts and to make the individual molds smaller.
This is what the steamer looks like:
And here is a size comparison with a warlord vosper hull:
As you see it is quite big but not as big as the trumpeter liberty ship. More when the first parts are cast. Hopefully tonight.
Here is the Rheinland painted and ready for the gaming table. I might give her a wash to dirty her up a bit though.
Yes, of course! Sorry that I haven’t written anything in the last week but real life came in the way. As i am sure happens with you lot often enough, too.
I have done a little more work on the generic steamer Bellota. I started work on the bridge area. this will be the bridge for a cargo vessel . I will do a bridge structure for a tanker and a passenger liner too. The aim is to build one hull and different superstructures to build many different steamers. There will be different funnels, too. Furthermore the cargo holds will be single peaces so that they can be left of when building e.g. a tanker. The tanker will get single peace fuel lines for placing on the deck.
So here is the start of the cargo bridge structure. The railing on the hull has to be cut away on the cast later to place the bridge correctly.
More to come
I got the Vorpostenboot model from Warlord and the hull wasn’t really strait as you can see on the picture ( red arrow).
As i had to correct that, I thought I could explain how I did it. As resin reacts with heat, it gets soft and bendy, so I heated up some water and put the model inside for a short time . I didn’t time it properly but I think I left it inside less then 30 sec. Surely the longer you leave the resin in the hot water the more bendy it gets.
When bendy enoughI took out the model and straitened it up. Be careful not to burn your fingers. Next step is to put the model in cold water . The resin gets hard again.
Here is a picture before (on the left) and after( on the right)
Hope that helps a bit if you have issues with bend resin models!
This weekend I finished building the steamer Rheinland. The model is to be used for the Cruel Seas game from Warlord. It is in 1/300 or 6mm scale. it is completely scratch build . More about the build here, here, and here.
I did the molds and the resin casting, too.
The only thing missing are the lifeboats. I will build a Kriegsmarine version next. Depicting the ship as a Hilfskreuzer ( auxiliary cruiser).
This will be my next build for Cruel Seas. I will use this plan as a guideline to build different steamers as convoy ships for Cruel Seas games. The model will be around 24cm long.
I will use the same hull with different superstructures to represent different generic steam ships. Like tankers, frighters, passenger liners etc . Here is the start on the hull.
When finished I will cast the hull in resin to safe me the hassle to always rebuild the same hull . The ships will then get different superstructures also cast in resin to be able to mix and match them accordingly . I will do different funnels, bridge sections etc to build as many different looking ships as possible. So keep an eye on these pages for more updates. I might be able to cast some ships for others if the need arises.
I added the last little details to the steamer Rheinland. She will be prepared for casting today and I think I might manage doing the molds tomorrow then. I took pictures of her alongside the tanker from warlord for size comparison .
So as this build nears completion I am open for suggestions what should be next. I am thinking about doing a generic cargo vessel size will be in-between the tanker from warlord and a liberty ship. So length would be around 24 cm. Any more suggestions? What is missing for cruel Seas?
Yesterday was the Kiepencon in Münster Germany. In the last years I went there as a punter only. This year I staged a cruel seas participation game.
the venue was the same as in the years before.
Except that all rooms of the venue were used . The x wing tournament was held in two separate rooms on the first floor:
As i had to run my own game I have, sadly, no more pictures of the running tournament.
Here are pictures of all the games that could be seen and taken part in during the day:
Adeptus Titanicus:
A splendid pirat game:
And my own cruel seas participation game. We played the second scenario from the rulebook about seven times and the tanker got sunk by torpedoes only once! Definitely something has to be done about the torpedo rules I think. The people managed to pick up the game mechanics very quickly and much fun was had by all. Warlord gave us some spurs of german s boats and vespers to give away as incentives. So the winner of each game could pick a sprue!
It was a brilliant day out . I would recommend attending the Kiepencon next year if you are near Münster. Probably a new venue is needed in the next year if the con continues to grow that fast !! Until next year……
wargamesgazette 